The Capitals are among the teams that have shown interest in Kraken winger Marcus Johansson, reports TSN’s Chris Johnston (Twitter link). The 31-year-old has had a bit of a quiet year in Seattle with six goals and 17 assists in 51 games but is someone that Washington is certainly familiar with as Johansson spent his first seven NHL seasons with the Caps. Cap space is next to non-existent for them, however (just $63K per CapFriendly) so finding a way to fit in Johansson’s $1.5MM cap hit will be a bit tricky and Seattle has already used two of their three retention slots in the Calle Jarnkrok and Mark Giordano trades.
More from Washington:
- The Capitals are among the teams interested in college free agent goaltender Clay Stevenson, relays Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 23-year-old technically just wrapped up his freshman year at Dartmouth and did well, posting a 2.70 GAA along with a .922 SV% in 23 games. El-Bashir adds that several NHL teams are interested in the netminder. Dartmouth isn’t among the teams in the NCAA tournament so Stevenson is someone that can sign at any time.
- Washington has placed defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk on injured reserve, notes Roman Stubbs of the Washington Post. He suffered an upper-body injury on Friday against Carolina and will be eligible to return on Saturday against New Jersey. The 30-year-old has played in 58 games this season, collecting 14 points while averaging nearly 18 minutes per game.
- Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press suggests (Twitter link) that a low-cost left-shot defenseman is something Washington would like to add. Michal Kempny is up with the big club but carries a $2.5MM AAV; bringing in a lower-cost depth option could allow them to send Kempny back to the minors (pending waivers) which would help free up a little bit of cap space.